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Site Design
Sirius Programming will work with you to determine the design of your site to suit your needs. We won't try to sell you features that you don't need. We can explain how and why each feature is generally used and where it fits, if possible, into your site design.
 | Purpose - Part of the design process is to determine the purpose of your site. Is it for information, sales, communication, etc.? What you want your site to say to your visitors is important in determining the site design. |
| Navigation - By using buttons, graphics and text, visitors should be able to quickly find what they are looking for without having to search through all your pages manually. Clear indications of where the information is located is essential. This is done usually through a text or graphical "menu" that informs the visitor where to go and where they are currently located. |
| Features - Determining the features of your site, such as a shopping cart, list server, guestbook, etc., is part of the design process. While most features can be added later, it generally is best to design the site with all the features selected before the actual page creation work starts. |
| "Look and Feel" - Do you want a very straight forward, business-like site? Do you want to sell your items in a "fun" or "festive" atmosphere? While the "Purpose" defines what you want to say to your visitors, we will work with you to determine the way that that information is presented. |
| Color Scheme - Part of the "Look and Feel" of your site is the basic color scheme. Do you want bright colors? Shades of a particular color? This isn't limited to solid colors. Gradients, natural textures, etc. all are available to enhance the overall color scheme. |
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E-Commerce
An E-Commerce site is for businesses that sell items and wish to include the vast Internet market among their customers.
| Shopping Cart - Visit www.bvsoftware.com for details on the shopping cart used by Sirius Programming. Click for a Store Demo or an Admin Demo. These are for the BVC2004 product from them. A new version, BVC5, will have demo links shortly. |
| Credit Card Processing - After a customer places an order on the site, information is sent to the merchant that an order needs to be processed. There are two methods to processing credit cards. The first is a manual process: The merchant can visit a specified webpage (See Security below) and get all the information about the order, including the credit card information. Credit cards are then processed manually using the merchant's existing credit card terminal. The second method is to use an online payment gateway and merchant account. |
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Graphics
| Scanning - Photos can be scanned and included on web pages. These are sized and converted to .JPG or .PNG format to allow for good visual detail while keeping file sizes small for the fastest download possible. |
| Editing - Scanned images can be edited with a seemingly endless variety of options including cropping, color changes, visual effects, overlaying, etc. |
| Flash - This graphics format allows for very fast loading and playback of interactive, animated images. Used for an introductory movie or navigation. Requires a player that is installed into your browser. |
| Animated Gif's - Generally used for simple "clipart" animation but can be used to show small animated movies. |
| Text Graphics - These are text, sometimes with a shadow, usually 3D. Used to show fonts that are not generally available (or can't be guaranteed) on the visitor's browser. |
| Custom Graphics - Custom art can be created for navigation buttons, page backgrounds, page borders, images, etc. |
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The first email alias or account is included with a site. Additional email aliases and accounts can be added.
| Email Alias - mail sent to someone@yourdomain.com is routed to your existing email account (for example, you@aol.com). Your outgoing email will still come from your existing account. |
| Email Account - Your email Client software (Microsoft Outlook, etc.) must be setup to send/receive email from the Sirius Programming server. Your email will be sent to/from someone@yourdomain.com. Optionally, a web-based method is available. |
| Auto-Responder - used for the automatic emailing of documents. An email is sent out with an attached document or list of documents when someone sends to info@yourdomain.com or some similar email address. |
| List Server - Allows the visitor to subscribe/unsubscribe to an email list for information, newsletters, product announcements, etc. You can either have everyone send information to the other list subscribers or only the person you designate can send information to the list subscribers. |
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Features
These are additional capabilities that can be added to your site
| Discussion Forum - Add multiple public, restricted or private communities to your website. Web-based administration/moderation for ease of use. Includes email capabilities to alert members of message responses. |
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Security
Secure Server pages are automatically provided for E-Commerce sites though the use of the certificate obtained by Sirius Programming for your site. Password protection is also provided for E-Commerce sites for use by the Merchant in viewing sales information.
| Secure Server Pages - Using a certificate of identification from
GeoTrust, these pages are used for entering credit card information.
The information is encrypted between the server and the visitor's browser to
prevent unauthorized viewing. These pages are also used to allow the
E-Commerce Merchant to securely view sales information. Secure Server
Pages are used by all major online retailers. Visitors to the site
will see https:// as the beginning of the web address, the "s" indicating it
is a secure page. Most browsers have a "lock" icon that also indicates
a secure page is being viewed. Sirius Programming will assist you in getting through the process as needed. |
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Programming
With Visual Basic .NET, almost any type of application can be developed to run on the web server. The visitor interacts with a web page by filling in text on a form, checking options, pulling down lists and pressing buttons, and the web application provides the results back to the visitor in a specified format, usually a report. Most common applications types are database-driven where some information is edited and stored for later searching and retrieval. Examples can be seen by visiting those sites listed on the Clients Page.